HUGH MILLER 131 



think it fully meets the necessities of the case, but it 

 has unquestionably the merit of imaginative power, and 

 is in full harmony with the nature of man's mind, and 

 is therefore preferable to any theory which would assert 

 the exact science of the Mosaic record by its anticipa- 

 tion of the theory of Laplace and Herschel, by which 

 the earth existed before the sun was given as a luminary, 

 and was independent of the sun for light. Perhaps the 

 theory of progressive revelation will commend itself to 

 most as the truest and the simplest explanation, though 

 it should be noted that the extraordinary approximation 

 of the Biblical version to the latest science does really 

 set it far above the merely human speculation of some 

 old Hebrew Newton or Descartes. 



While regarding the ' days ' as ages, Miller views the 

 record as the result of an optical vision presented to the 

 writer. He truly enough remarks that any exact re- 

 velation would have defeated its own object through 

 an elaborate statement to man at an early stage. Man 

 would not have believed it, as it would have con- 

 tradicted his own experience. He would no more have 

 believed that the earth revolved on its own axis than 

 that molluscs had preceded him on the earth. The 

 record, therefore, he regards as according to appearance 

 rather than to physical realities : ' The sun, moon, and 

 stars may have been created long before, though it was 

 not until the fourth day of creation that they became 

 visible from the earth's surface.' The six days or 

 periods he takes to correspond with the six divisions in 



